NOW 54 vs NOW #1's vs NOW Funk - The U.S. Strikes Back!

If you bought the first 53 volumes, you're not gonna stop now are you?  Not with T-Swift, FOB and little miss Ariana Grande?  C'mon.  Fun fact: FOB's Patrick Stump and I share a birthday.  And Flo Rida brings his club romper "Goin' Down Fur Reals" - you know that was your jam like barely a month ago.  I have no idea who the rest of these young yahoos are but you might like them.  NOW 54 ships on May 4th so now you know.  If the cover art looks familiar, it was previously used on NOW 88 over in the U.K.  The only decision you have to make is whether to click and wait or go and get.  Here's a few music videos while you decide:

Also happening on May 4th is NOW #1's, another U.S. release.  Does the title sound familiar?  There have been two similarly titled albums released over in the U.K. and one here in the USofA during the past decade.

This new one brings seventeen chart toppers to the party (though nearly all of them have appeared on previous NOW releases) and for your convenience I assembled the handy consumer guide below that tells you when the songs hit the Number One and what other NOW album they can be found on. But first a virdeo, as the kids say.

	track		title	artist	NOW #	year
	1		Locked Out Of Heaven	Bruno Mars	46	2012
	2		Roar	Katy Perry	48	2013
	3		Timber	Pitbull feat. Ke$ha	49	2014
	4		Happy	Pharrell Williams	50	2014
	5		All About That Bass	Megahn Trainor	52	2014
	6		Rude	Magic!	51	2014
	7		Fancy	Iggy Azalea with Charli XCX	51	2014
	8		Royals	Lorde	49	2013
	9		Low	Flo Rida with T-Pain	40*	2008
	10		Lollipop	Lil Wayne with Static Major	28	2008
	11		I Gotta Feeling	Black Eyed Peas	32	2009
	12		Born This Way	Lady Gaga	38	2011
	13		Stronger	Kelly Clarkson	42	2012
	14		Viva La Vida	Coldplay	**	2008
	15		Big Girls Don't Cry	Fergie	26	2007
	16		Just Give Me A Reason	P!NK with Nate Ruess	46	2013
	17		All Of Me	John Legend	50	2014
	18		Don't Forget About Us	Mariah Carey	21	2005
	* = NOW 40 was released as a single disc and a double disc album - "Low" is only on the second CD
	** = previously unavailable on a U.S. NOW album

On the same day, in the same country and available exclusively at the world's largest retailer, NOW Funk drops.  The album features fifteen classic and apparently easy to license songs from the Seventies and Eighties, some in single versions and others in full length album versions.  The playlist above is as close a re-creation of the album I could make using Spotify's library of songs, which is expected to pass the 40 million mark shortly before this album sees the light of day.  HERC's M!X below is made from the same library, I just used longer versions whenever possible.  So if you got 24 extra minutes to spare, go ahead and enjoy more NOW Funk.  Let's see what YouTube offers in the way of videos of songs from NOW Funk.

BONUS DJDISCOCAT FUNK
Shining Star 1975 Disco Purrfection Version